DeBenedetti Christian - The Great American ale trail: the craft beer lovers guide to the best watering holes in the nation

Praise for The Great American Ale Trail

WINNER, SOC. OF AMERICAN TRAVEL WRITERS FOUNDATION LOWELL THOMAS TRAVEL JOURNALISM AWARD BEST GUIDEBOOK 2012

... Men and women who like their drinks simple, cold and on tap will appreciate The Great American Ale Trail, in which Christian DeBenedetti heralds a new golden age of American beer, reporting state by state on the countrys best taverns and brewhouses. Balanced but tangy, like the Duet beer he tastes in a mountain town in California, this book whets a prodigious thirst.

Liesl Schillinger, The New York Times, Dec. 16, 2011

Christian DeBenedettis book is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

Jack Hitt, author, Bunch of Amateurs: A Search for the American Character

Here is joyful evidence that doomsayers who lament the dumbing-down of Americas taste are only Chicken Littles. The Great American Ale Trail posits that in fact we are, right now, enjoying the Golden Age of craft beer, offering as evidence a guide to hundreds of bars, breweries, and even barbecues around the nation that make and/or serve the best of it. What a roadmap for taste-bud adventure! With this book in hand, anyone who prizes good beer need never go thirsty again.

Jane and Michael Stern, authors of Roadfood

From sea to foaming sea, weve become a great Beer Hoisting Nation. And Christian DeBenedetti is our convivial, savvy, and good-humored guide. The result of his dedicated wanderings is a tangy compendium thats part travelogue, part practical handbook, and part cultural history, giving us fresh perspective on the Hop Revolution that has quietly overtaken our land, one pint at a time. Carry this book with you on your own cross-continental travels, and bring it home stained and soura field manual soaked with happy memories.

Hampton Sides, Editor-at-Large, Outside magazine and author of In the Kingdom of Ice; Hellhound on His Trail; Blood and Thunder; Ghost Soldiers; and Americana.

Some people know where they are going early on. Take Christian DeBenedetti. He graduated college, received a fellowship and did the logical thing: He used the fellowship to study traditional beer-making in Europe and West Africa. He was then mentored by legendary British beer writer Michael Jackson. Now DeBenedetti is a respected beer journalist with his first book, The Great American Ale Trail.

Lynne Rossetto Kasper, host of NPRs The Splendid Table, Jan. 11, 2013

What a great read this ispacked with places I instantly want to visit and fizzing with fun, enlightening glimpses of the coolest aspects of our nations craft-beer renaissance. I cant wait to take a few of these road trips. They promise a whole new way to see and taste America.

Margo True, Food Editor, Sunset magazine; author, The One-Block Feast

The Great American Ale Trail is truly a great book. The premise is simple: Theres a craft brewery revolution happening in America and DeBenedetti spent a year traveling to document it. But the simplicity of the books goal belies the complexity of what happens when you crack the cover. On the one hand, this is a travel book. Nothing in recent memory has inspired the same urge to pack up the car and head off in an unknown directionpreferably a direction that includes lots of sunshine and dusty roads and ends with a very big cold one. But instead of being overly factual and list orientated, The Great American Ale Trail is like a craft brew travel guide that just happens to have been written by one of your coolest, smartest, and most discriminating friends.

Anne Zimmerman, Serious Eats, Sept. 19, 2011

Christian DeBenedetti provides a useful, if necessarily incomplete, guide in his The Great American Ale Trail.... A young and talented beer journalist, DeBenedetti provides extensive descriptions of beer bars, stores, breweries, brewpubs, and restaurants with extensive beer lists (Eleven Madison Park, one of Manhattans toniest eateries, also boasts one of the countrys best beer inventories). Tucked between are travel itineraries, regional overviews, and general musings about the culture of beer in America. What could have been a dry mash note to the nations beer havens is, in DeBenedettis hands, a fluid, entertaining handbook.

Clay Risen, The Atlantic, Oct. 31, 2011

Author Christian DeBenedetti spent a year on the road sampling small-batch craft beer.... In page after glorious page, he tells the stories of the people behind the breweries, presents their guiding philosophy... and describes their signature beers. He talks to the big names of the industry... suggests one-day, three-day, and seven-day beer itineraries and includes fascinating sidebars.... A fun book for beer lovers everywhere.

June Sawyers, Chicago Tribune, Jan. 10, 2012

Christian has been an evangelist for and card-carrying member of the craft brewing community for many years. And now, with this book, his encyclopedic knowledge of American brewery geography and mythology is right at your fingertips. There are over 1,800 commercial breweries in this country and the average American lives within 10 miles of at least one brewery and a short road trip away from hundreds of them. So get truckin and explore the vibrant, diverse, craft brewing landscape America is now internationally known for.

Sam Calagione, President and founder, Dogfish Head Craft Brewery; author of Brewing Up a Business

FOR MOM & CHUCK, THE TRAVELING COMPANIONS

2016 by Christian DeBenedetti

Published by Running Press, A Member of the Perseus Books Group

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Printed in the United States.

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2015960852

E-book ISBN 978-0-7624-6102-8

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Digit on the right indicates the number of this printing

Cover design by Daniel Cantada

Book design by Amanda Richmond

Illustrations by Ryan Hayes

Edited by Jessica Fromm

Typography: Eames, Garage Gothic, and Fenway Park

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CONTENTS

WHEN THE BOARDING PASS EMERGED FROM THE WHIRRING MACHINE AT HELSINKI-VANTAA Airport, I had to admit that I was relieved. I hadnt intended things to turn out this way, but this is what always happens, and I really should have known better. Only seven hours previously, Id been at the pubSt. Urhos Pub, to be precisea slightly grubby watering hole in one of the lesser-known districts of Helsinki, Finland. Finns speak a language intelligible to no one else on earth, but that has never slowed them down, especially when it comes to socializing. So now here I was, with Markku, Jussi, Kari, and a few others, telling improbable stories. I pinged my pal Matt on Facebook and told him I was drinking his beer in Helsinki. He picked up in England and pinged me back within minutes, asking how it was holding up. The beer was beautiful, and it was a fine eveningall about the ebullient company, and the company was all about the beer. St. Urhos has more than a dozen taps, all flowing with excellent beers, lovingly kept. I didnt mean to stay until 3 a.m., but thats what you do, and the reindeer pizza really